Celtic extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to seven points with a 1-0 win over Aberdeen away from home on Wednesday night.
The Hoops did not have it all their own way throughout the game and had to dig deep at times against a home team that did create chances and got numbers into the box on plenty of occasions.
Brendan Rodgers’ side secured all three points thanks to a late strike from central midfielder Reo Hatate, who finished well from Greg Taylor’s ball over the top.
The Japan international had a mixed evening against Aberdeen, however, with some good and bad moments in the middle of the park in the top two Premiership clash.
Reo Hatate's performance against Aberdeen
The 27-year-old star popped up with the only goal in the game with 12 minutes left to play, as he raced onto a ball from Taylor and brilliantly found the bottom corner with a sweet strike on the half volley.
That was one of the four shots the Japanese maestro mustered throughout the game, whilst he failed to create a ‘big chance’ for any of his teammates.
Hatate also only completed 76% of his attempted passes, which was the lowest of the three starting midfielders for Celtic, as he gave possession back to the hosts too cheaply at times.
The Celtic star did, however, win four of his six duels defensively to make up for his loose play on the ball, which shows that he dominated the Aberdeen midfielders in physical contests.
Performance in Numbers
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Hatate was not the real hero of the night for the Scottish giants, though, as central defender Cameron Carter-Vickers was even better than the midfielder.
Cameron Carter-Vickers' performance against Aberdeen
The USA international started alongside Auston Trusty at the heart of the defence for the Hoops and produced an incredibly dominant display.
His best moment of the match came just after Hatate put Celtic 1-0 up. Trusty’s poor touch seemed to tee up Ester Sokler for a certain goal, only for a world-class sliding challenge from Carter-Vickers to send the forward’s shot up and over the bar to deny him an equaliser.
It was a win-saving block from the former Tottenham Hotspur defender, and summed up his performance as a whole, as the Hoops colossus was almost faultess in the Premiership clash.
Touches
159
Pass accuracy
95%
Duels won
3/3
Clearances
4
Blocks
1
As you can see in the table above, Carter-Vickers won 100% of his duels with Aberdeen players in the game, which speaks to his defensive dominance for Rodgers.
He also had a whopping 159 touches of the ball and completed 95% of his passes, and that shows how composed and reliable he was with the ball at his feet.
Overall, Carter-Vickers offered quality in and out of possession, whilst also securing the win with a huge block late on, and that is why he was even better than Hatate on the night.
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